Our history: Composer of music for ‘Grinch’ went to CCM after escaping Nazi Germany

It took just three minutes for Albert Hague to convince Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, that he should write the music for the Grinch.

Geisel had written lyrics for the 1966 animated television special based on his children’s book, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” and was looking for a composer.

Hague was a 1942 graduate of the College of Music of Cincinnati, formerly located next to Music Hall and now part of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.

He recounted his audition to UC Magazine editor Deborah Rieselman in 1997.

Hague had insisted that Geisel come to his house because he had the better piano, then played his composition for the imaginative put-downs in “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

“Afterward, Seuss looked up and said, ‘Anyone who slides an octave on the word Grinch gets the job.’ The whole thing took three minutes,” Hague told Rieselman.

The 1966 animated show will air at 8 p.m. Dec. 25 on NBC-TV, followed at 8:30 p.m. by the 2000 film version, according to the network's online schedule.

“Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” was directed by Chuck Jones and narrated by Boris Karloff. The Grinch song was sung uncredited by Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger.

The Grinch has become a staple of the holidays, with the TV show ranked by Time magazine as one of the 10 best holiday specials. Hague's theme song was used in both the 2000 and 2018 film versions, including a new rendition of the song by rapper Tyler, the Creator.

Getting to that fateful audition with Dr. Seuss was a long, winding path for Hague.

He was born Albert Marcuse in Berlin in 1920. According to Hague’s 2001 obituary in the New York Times, his father was a psychiatrist and his mother was a champion chess player. The family was Jewish but believed it was safer in Germany at that time to identify as Lutheran.

“I grew up in a tough neighborhood,” Hague once remarked, “Nazi Germany.”

In 1937, before Hague could be inducted into the Hitler Youth, he and his mother escaped to Rome. Family members then helped arrange for Hague to attend the College of Music in Cincinnati on a scholarship.

To give him legal standing to stay in the United States, he was adopted by Dr. Eliott B. Hague, an eye surgeon with close ties to the college.

Albert Hague graduated from the College of Music in 1942 and went on to compose the music for "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"(Photo: Enquirer file)

While in school, Hague played both boogie-woogie music in nightclubs and classic piano concerts, including a performance with acclaimed Russian pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Hague found success composing for Broadway shows. His song, “Young and Foolish,” from the 1955 musical, “Plain and Fancy,” has been recorded by Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and Tony Bennett, and he won a Tony Award for the score of the 1959 musical “Redhead," directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse.

His wife, Renee Orin, had been the leading lady of his first unsuccessful musical. In later years, they did a cabaret show together, “Hague & Hague: His Hits and His Mrs.”

Albert Hague starred in the "Fame" TV series and wrote the musical score to "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"(Photo: Provided)

The film’s director, Alan Parker, had wanted a musician rather than an actor for the role, according to a Knight-Ridder News Service story from 1983. Instead of an audition, Parker asked Hague to talk about music.

“Jazz,” Hague began, “is the glorification of the inexact.”

Parker hired him on the spot. “That’s exactly what Shorofsky would say!”

Hague never expected to have an acting career. “Absolutely no,” he told Playbill magazine. “It was completely out of the blue.”

The impish Hague with the gentle German accent was not only as he appeared. He was, perhaps, a little bit more.